Daddy's sudoku quilt

This was the only Christmas present that didn't get done on time last year. It's a lap quilt for my dad, who loves to do sudoku puzzles. In this pattern, fabric is substituted for numbers, making a sudoku grid out of colors. I lost count of how many times I checked this to make sure I hadn't twisted a block - the equivalent of screwing up a sudoku writing in pen - except I wouldn't just throw this out the way I could if I screwed up a written sudoku. I also did numbers in trapunto in the single blocks in the top and bottom borders. I was able to give it to him in person when we visited last week. He loved it, which makes me very happy.

Dylan and scissors - or - Dylan and pictures

Dylan has a thing about scissors. I'll never forget the day I picked him up from kindergarten and was met by his teacher, wearing a grave look on her face. He had capably ventilated the school t-shirt I had just gotten for him the day before, reducing it to rags with those blunt paper scissors they use in kindergarten. On the bright side, that must have taken a lot of determination, something I definitely want to encourage. On the not so bright side, he then had to save his money to buy a new t-shirt, which I know was a huge disappointment for him.

Dylan also has a thing about pictures. If we are going to get pictures taken, he is almost guaranteed to draw a boomerang with a Sharpie on his forehead, fall and give himself a shiner or do something else to make it seem from photo evidence as if he is horribly abused and neglected.

Two weeks ago he decided, in a moment of inspired brilliance, to marry his two passions by taking the scissors to his own hair without the benefit of a mirror, cutting off his bangs in big hunks. He did this the day before school pictures. When I asked him why he had done it, he readily informed me his bangs had gotten too long. When I asked him why he didn't get me to trim them, he didn't have an answer, but I suspect it must be a source of great joy to him to leave me speechless, which happens way too frequently. The way he's wrinkling up his forehead here makes his hair look lumpy, but not too short. However, he cut it SHORT! I ended up just leaving it alone because he would have been left with an exposed hair line by the time I got it blended.

Needless to say, that's one set of pictures I won't be ordering.

Movie review - Monsters vs. Aliens 3-D

For those that are interested, I thought I would review "Monsters vs. Aliens 3-D", which we saw while we were in Montana.

First of all, the boys loved it. My parents, who had never been to a 3-D movie, were extremely impressed, too. I, however, am a little more jaded. That's probably a result of having had a year's pass to Disney World, the mecca of special-effects entertainment.

The 3-D that was on the screen was fabulous. I think it probably had the most depth of any 3-D movie I've ever seen. It was consistently good throughout the movie, too. However, there was very little that came off the screen into the audience. I think "Voyage to the Center of the Earth 3-D" was better for that kind of effect. Also, I was a little disappointed with the writing. Some of the animated movies are so clever that they are a joy to watch again and again. "Fern Gully", "Shrek", and "Monsters, Inc." spring to mind. This movie was entertaining but, if it hadn't been for the 3-D, I think it would have been totally forgettable, blurring into the mass of animated movies most parents of young children end up watching. I left feeling disappointed, because it could have been a really great movie. It had 3-D, good animation, big budget, good premise, etc. In the end it just fell a little flat.

Spring Break/Memory Lane trip

Well, we did end up going to Montana last week for spring break. I'm always hesitant to go this time of year because it's still cold but it can also be muddy and all that goo can freeze, making driving conditions really treacherous. There are two pretty high passes to go over in Idaho - Fourth of July (3173ft.) and Lookout (4725ft.). We were fortunate (and we had checked the weather) on the way over and the passes were clear and dry. So the drive over was uneventful - just the way I like it.

This is the sign at the bottom of the hill where my parents live: For the first several years after we moved here (I was in second grade), there were only two families beyond this point. There was us and there was a neighboring family who lived about 1/4 mile away over a hill. We both lived to the right, the road to the left was a largely unused, rutted, logging road. The area right behind the sign is where we had a pasture for my first horse, Twister, an 18-year-old palomino gelding. There was also one spot in particular that was the best place on the property to dig up worms for fishing. Now there's a sign to keep track of everyone and it's almost like a neighborhood in town. Most people can see at least one other house from their driveway. It got too crowded for my parents down below, so they moved farther up the mountain. They're still the last ones on the road.

It was a fabulous way to grow up. I wouldn't want to move back now but I really regret that my kids can't grow up "free-range" the way I did. In the summertime we had to be back by dark (around 10:30pm) and take the dog (to chase away bears). There were no worries about human predators because for miles behind our house it was all forest service and logging land - we only rarely even saw other people. We knew how to find our way down the mountain if we ever got truly lost, but we never did. We knew all the logging roads, abandoned cabins and landmarks for miles around.

Because there were so few people, there was lots of wildlife. We saw bears quite a few times. My parents even have a bear skin rug on the wall that killed three of our pigs before my dad shot him. After that the Fish and Game believed my parents when they said we had bears (before that they had told my parents that there were no bears that close to town) and F&G would come out to trap and relocate them. There were the occasional mountain lion, skunk, moose, and elk - more often we would see signs of them or hear them (or smell them in the case of the skunk) than actually see them. There were also coyotes, birds and lots of deer. One of my clearest memories is going to sleep on a warm summer evening listening to the coyotes yipping.

Anyway, the boys love it up here. They get to run wild for at least a few days, although I do insist they stay within sight of the house so they don't get lost. This week, they spent 1-3 hours a day just playing in the snow. They also got to see a decent assortment of critters. This flock? gaggle? idiot? (Okay, I looked it up. It's a rafter of turkeys... and that would've been my next guess, lol.) of turkeys was crossing the road as we drove up the hill one afternoon and the tom was clearly daring me to MAKE HIS DAY! I was really excited but my dad hates the turkeys. He says they're dumber than rocks and crap all over everything to boot. I still think they must be smarter than he thinks because they know enough to make themselves scarce around mid-November.

We always see lots of deer but this one was a treat. This picture is taken through one of the windows at the front of my parents' house. The windows are reflective enough that the animals can't see us inside the house and this deer was close enough to pet at one point (assuming we could somehow reach through said glass).

Anyway, we had a great time. The boys were very well-behaved - believe me, that is never a sure thing and I do NOT take it for granted, I got to visit with my oldest friend (in years of friendship - 30+) and my parents got to spend some time with the boys before we move this summer. It almost makes me wish there were another spring break between now and when school ends so I could do it all over again.

For crafters/quilters

I just read on a friend's blog about a new website. It's a spin-off of the "You Can Make This" website, which has a lot of articles and cute projects. The new site is going to be called... drum roll, please... "You Can Quilt This". It's going to be up and running sometime in April and, as part of the effort to get the word out, they're giving away a Janome sewing machine. If you're interested and want more information, just click on the blog button below and page down a little to the post from March 19.

Small quilt for auction

Every year the quilt guild I belong to has a small quilt silent auction at the quilt show in August. Members can make a small quilt/wall hanging and donate it to be auctioned. In return, those donating quilts have the opportunity to suggest a non-profit agency to get the proceeds from the auction. One is picked at random and that non-profit gets the proceeds from everyone's small quilt. It's normally somewhere around $500. This is my quilt for this year. I'm hoping that my non-profit, HANS (http://www.helpautismnow.com/?page_id=22), is chosen. It's based right here in Salem, Oregon and their mission is to provide doctors and other health care professionals with materials and training to help diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) earlier. Having experienced a grueling three years trying to get Dakota properly diagnosed, this is something close to my heart. We had medical professionals suggest diagnosis ranging from emotionally disturbed to sensory integration disorder to poor parenting to auditory processing disorder. - And yes, the poor parenting diagnosis hurt. That doctor (a psychologist) only worked under that theory for a short time until he knew us better and had seen enough interaction to realize it was not poor parenting, in spite of first impressions.

Not a single one even mentioned autism until we got to the Child Development Center at USF, where he was seen and tested by a developmental pediatrician, a clinical psychologist, a school psychologist, and a neurologist. Then they all got together and their joint diagnosis was the first one that truly made sense. It just shouldn't be that hard! In hind-sight, the warning signs were there for anyone who looked if they had any training at all in recognizing ASDs. And with ASDs now affecting 1 out of every 150 children, this isn't some exotic disease that a doctor might never encounter outside of a text book. Anyway, I'll be hoping really hard that HANS gets a little extra boost in funding this year to carry out its mission, courtesy of the Oregon Coastal Quilter's Guild.

Newest member of the family

Both the little boys have been nuts for these little stuffed animals called Webkinz for about a year now. You buy the animal, then go online to "adopt" it at the Webkinz website. Then there are all sorts of games you can play. You have to feed and care for your pet, send it to classes, work to pay for things, build a house and furnish it, etc. You can also send other Webkinz owners gifts and pre-written messages. About 5 months ago Devin got one so he could play games with the boys online. I half-jokingly said that I would have to find a horse before I could join them, so Devin got me one for my Valentine's Day present. This is Kady. It really is fun and unlike Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Bakugan, and WWF figures, I can actually get into this. You log on and your Webkinz greets you with a little heart, saying she's so happy you've come back to play, she loves you, etc. It's the kind of unconditional love and validation we mothers never get until our kids are grown and moved away (if then), leaving us all alone with our gray hair and panic attacks. So, hey, I'll take it where ever I can get it.